The Internet - friend or foe?

This is what I'd like to show as a professional networking tool that I use, but obviously that won't work right now. This is a Ning site set up for a group of history teachers in our district who participate in a Federally funded grant to train teachers and prepare curriculum for other history teachers in our district. Becasue the site is down right now, you'll have to settle for other social networking groups farther down the page.

I have a love/hate relationship with the Internet when it comes to learning. I personally love using it because information is literally at your fingertips. As a history teacher, I probably shouldn’t admit this, but I think that Wikipedia is 99% accurate when dealing with the historical “facts” about the curriculum covered in the 7th and 8th grade history standards. As an example, I showed my students a mini-series called Into the West this year. After a scene where it depicted the massacre at Wounded Knee, I was able to pause the video and discuss with the students some of the details of the massacre using facts from Wikipedia. I also find that the Internet is a great way to find primary source documents like the ones I used in my portfolio project this week. I believe that learning on the Internet is a powerful tool, and this class is helping me really delve into the possibilities of using more technology in classroom learning in either an online environment or a traditional school setting. I find myself spending more time than I had intended on the different sites and trying out the new tools.

On the other hand, I do believe that the Internet has allowed some students to develop lazy habits. Students generally want to use the Internet for their learning, and in past years I have seen this produce mixed results. Some students use the Internet to spark their creativity, but others use it as a crutch to simply find and regurgitate information. While I want my students to learn to use technology as this will help them in the real world, at the same time, I want them to develop traditional skills as well. I find some students hand in amazing reports or PowerPoint presentations using information and tools from the Internet, but some of those students are not able to then transfer those skills to real world applications or critical thinking skills that show higher levels of learning and understanding. I want students to use the tools that will help them be successful, but most importantly I want them to be able to think and create for themselves.

I am definitely finding the Web 2.0 tools are more geared toward student creativity than the technology tools we were trained in even five years ago. I intend to develop lesson plans and especially student projects that will tap into these tools. My goal is to create a learning environment where students can use the Internet as a means to develop the higher order thinking skills that they will need to be successful. That way they will have the technology base as well as the individual confidence to use their skills in the real world.

As far as communication and a sense of community, I have to admit that I am not a big fan of Facebook or those types of social networking sites. I have seen those pages used as a platform for students to say hurtful things to each other in a very public way. I saw a messy divorce become too public on Facebook, and I even saw someone accuse their spouse of cheating on them using Facebook once. However, at the same time I have to admit that I do have a Facebook page although I do not visit it often. I withstood the first several waves of invitations to join Facebook. Finally, when I saw an email from a former student mentioning wedding pictures, I broke down and created an account. Since then, I began receiving even more friend requests (most from former students), and because I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, I usually log on about once a month and accept a bunch of requests. I do not usually post anything myself, and a while ago I received an email from a former student. She said that to people who don't know me, I probably appear online to be a creepy, old man because I have many teenage girls as Facebook friends, but I didn’t even have a profile picture of myself. When I added a picture of myself in the stocks at Williamsburg, Virginia, the girl emailed me again saying that really hadn’t helped.

I myself have nothing against Facebook as I know many people enjoy it to stay in touch with friends and loved ones. I myself just classify it in the category of things that distract me from learning on the Internet. There is just so much stuff on Facebook, it just feels like sensory overload to me. I prefer using tools that have a more specific purpose. I have used blogs on three separate occasions to chronicle a family trip – one RV trip across the USA, a trip to Europe, and a tour of the western states where we saw three Weird Al Yankovic concerts en route. Family and friends loved seeing pictures and following our misadventures. After some of the trips, I made slideshows and posted them on YouTube, and my kids still go back and watch them. The blogs and YouTube videos have become online journals and photo albums for our family. I even began posting some of my daughter’s wrestling matches on YouTube mostly so my dad who lives in Oregon could see them. Then my daughter sent her friends the links, and my wife began posting them on her Facebook page. Her video from last year’s Girl’s State Championship currently has 699 views.

As a final note on this rambling reflection, I do have to admit that just how open the Internet is does worry me. Of course, Internet safety is a concern, but even the accessibility to things like pornography is a concern for me as a parent and teacher when encouraging students to use the Internet more. The Internet is a valuable tool, but like any tool, it must be used with supervision and guidance when teaching a young person to use it for the purpose that will ultimately be the most beneficial.

New tricks for an old dog.

I definitely intend to begin using some of the Web 2.0 tools in my classroom next year. One thing that will limit how effective some of these tools are will be whether or not my computers can support the programs and web sites that I would like to use. I have about nine computers dedicated for student use with two other laptops that I can have students use when needed. These computers range in age from about a year old to well over six years old. I also share the use of about nine iPads with other 7/8 grade teachers. I will have to see how the iPads and older computers do in supporting the sites I plan to use.

An option that I may try is allowing students to bring in their personal laptops, smart phones, tablets or iPods in to the classroom if some of these devices can support the sites. This would allow more students to use the technology at the same time in the classroom. This year is the first year that our school has had Wi-Fi available, and while I still worry about students being off-task if given to much freedom with technology, I see how useful of a tool it can be in engaging and motivating students. The skills that students learn from using technology effectively will benefit them in the future.

I want to have students create web sites next year using Google sites. Each of our students has a Google account that the language arts teacher at our school used this year to have them work with Google docs. I will have them use those accounts to create a site where they can post some of their projects. I will have them create Voki avatars to embed on their websites and projects. I also want to try some of the mini lessons that I have seen on Edmodo.

A specific activity that I was thinking about to encourage higher level thinking skills would be to use the Voki avatars to stage an online debate with students presenting and countering arguments with their avatars. I have found debates are great tools to push students to develop their critical thinking skills. A possible debate topic from a unit I just covered would be about Big Business during the Industrial Revolution. I will have students use their online avatars to debate the pros and cons of Big Business during this time period in US history. I will then have students draw parallels between the technological advancement of that time period to our world today. As the students will be creating their ideas and responses using some tools of this modern technology, this should be a powerful learning experience.

Avatar of Andrew Carnegie defending Big Business

I will first make sure that the students know how to use the technology by having them create avatars using topics that they choose. Then I will have them use avatars for simple introductions on projects or website. When they have mastered the technology skills, I will introduce the debate project. Once I see how well this works, I will modify the assignment, and eventually I would like to have them collaborate in two-person debate teams. By this step-by-step process, my goals for the students would be to master the new technology, learn about the history of the Industrial Revolution, and develop critical thinking skills by seeing how these themes apply to the modern world.

What? You mean I have to change?

2.2 Reflection: Methodologies of the Online Instructor

In your reflective post this week, think about the following questions: 1. Reflecting on the information covered in this module so far, how might your instructional methodologies need to change in an online or blended learning environment? 2. What skills and strategies might you improve or expand upon in order to best support student learning in a blended or online environment?

I think these questions are harder to answer than they first appear. From what I can tell so far, a pure online learning experience is a very different beast from a blended class experience. The amount of face-to-face contact between the teacher and students could also range greatly in blended environments. In a class situation where I see students on a fairly regular basis, I believe that my instructional strategies and methods would not have to change nearly as drastically as they would in a situation where I either did not see the students at all or saw them on a very limited basis.

As you may have noticed by some of my other responses, one of my concerns with a pure online learning experience is the accuracy of assessments. As an instructor in an online class for middle school or high school students, I would need to design activities and assessments where I could really hear an individual student voice come through. With my students now, I know them individually because of the time we spend together in class. If a student hands in a project or paper that uses words or ideas that I know that particular student wouldn't use, it is pretty obvious to me. Without the face time with the students, I would need to plan enough discussions and responses so that I can get a feel for each student’s voice. Then I would be able to tell better whether a larger assessment was the authentic work of a particular student. This area of mastering an effective online pedagogy will be challenging.

As far as skills and specific strategies, I think that communication and timely responses will be key. Part of the communication will be in creating very clear written instructions. In my classroom now, I can rely on a thorough in-class discussion when a project is assigned to make up for a lack of foresight when writing a project requirement handout. In an online class, I will not have that luxury. The written instructions will have to be clear and complete. I will also have to respond promptly when I student has a question so that they will understand as soon as possible what is expected of them.

Image from: http://learnmore.uncg.edu/blog/?Tag=online%20class

What am I doing here?

1.2 Reflection: Personal Learning Goal

Considering the online learning self-assessment you took this week, and thinking about your reasons for taking this course, what is your highest priority learning goal for this course?

What are some specific skills, strategies or tools you are hoping to learn more about? Don't forget to make your blog public and email your instructor the link!

I feel comfortable using the Internet and taking an online course. My main goal for this course is to start preparing myself to teach online courses. I want to learn the nuts and bolts of the skills I need to be an effective online instructor as well as learning about where to find the opportunities to teach online classes. In my ideal scenario, I would like to keep teaching at my current job as I enjoy the personal interaction with students. However, as online learning is a growing field, I would like to be able to take on the responsibility of teaching an extra class or two each year that I could manage either in the evenings or over the summer months.

I want to learn the specific skills that will enable me to plan and manage online classes using different delivery systems such as haiku and blackboard. I feel fairly comfortable with some of the skills, but I want to know specifics of both teaching within a set framework as well as preparing my own curriculum for an online class. I want feel comfortable that I can find and develop strategies that will allow me to give real assessment as to students academic progress and learning. I worry that giving valid evaluations of student work will be difficult without traditional methods to ensure that students are learning and progressing. It seems to me that some students could use online learning as an opportunity to rely on other people more than they could in a traditional learning environment. I hope to learn about tools that an online teacher can use to regulate and ensure that students are doing their own work and developing their own skills and knowledge.

First image from: http://bogglishhuderon.blogspot.com/2011/11/sloan-c-and-state-of-online-learning-at.html

Second image from: http://www.rueeducation.com/Home/Total-Learning-Systems/Online-Learning.aspx